PAL welcomes Malacañang’s Palea appeal

Thursday, 09 December 2010 00:00
The Manila Times

PHILIPPINE Airlines on Wednesday welcomed Malacañang’s appeal to the PAL Employees Association (Palea) to “exercise restraint in their planned strike” for the sake of their patrons.
In a statement, PAL spokesman Cielo Villaluna thanked President Benigno Aquino 3rd and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. for responding to what she called a “potential labor crisis.”

“We all know that a work stoppage would not only hurt the company, related industries and the country’s economy, but would also wreak havoc on the travel plans of thousands of local and foreign travelers,” she said.

The spokesman emphasized the airline company’s belief that the Office of the President has primary and official jurisdiction over the labor case and indicated hopes the association holds a similar view.

“PAL defers and respects the good judgment of the President. We hope [that] Palea will do the same,” Villaluna said.

Maintaining that Palea’s collection of strike votes on Tuesday was not legally justified, she added that its “complaints about individual bargaining should have been raised before the Office of the President before they conducted a strike vote.”

Villaluna said that although PAL believes that Palea’s actions have no legal merit, “we leave it to the President to [decide] on the legality of the association’s vote-gathering exercise.”